Swing

The psychoanalyst Helene Deutsch once said "the ultimate goal of all research is not objectivity, but truth. " It's in that spirit that we conclude Curtis Granderson should be the American League's first-half Most Valuable Player. A crowd of players deserves consideration. The Blue Jays' Jose Bautista is once again putting up the biggest numbers with a majors-leading 29 home runs (all numbers are entering the weekend), and Adrian Gonzalez has carried the Red Sox with league-leading totals in average (.351)

Here we go with the Top 6! If this opening number, with its skeleton costuming motif and black lights, isn't a Pharside and Phoenix number, I'll eat one of those Bane masks (from "The Dark Knight Rises") they're wearing. Our top six, in order of introduction: Valerie Rockey, Casey Askew, Jessica Richens, Ricky Ubeda, Jacque Warner and Zack Everhart. It looks like I better figure out a way to eat a Bane mask, because Nick DeMoura did the opening number. Cat tells us that each dancer will be dancing three dances tonight: one with another contestant, one with an All-Star and a solo dance.

“Hair,” the counterculture musical that stirred the pot, so to speak, in 1968, is very much a product of its time - Vietnam, dropping out, dropping acid, free love, Hare Krishna. Dated it may be, but it's got something timeless going on, too, as the enjoyable revival by the Stillpointe Theatre Initiative reiterates. Today's young generation may have no fear of a draft and no great interest in where or why our military is fighting now, but the antiwar message in “Hair” can still hit home.

It has been a difficult season for Orioles slugger Chris Davis, but the first baseman hit two milestones Friday night with one swing. With his sixth-inning solo shot, Davis picked up his 20th homer of the season and 150th of his career. He was asked Saturday about whether No. 150 meant something to him. “I think it's a good number. It's not real high. It's not low,” he said. “But I think it is just one of those things that you can look back at the body of work and really appreciate everything that has gone into it.” Davis hit a major league-best 53 homers last season but has struggled much of this year.

Struggling outfielder Nolan Reimold took extra batting practice before Tuesday night's game, his latest attempt to try to correct mechanical issues with his swing. Reimold, who wasn't in the starting lineup Tuesday night with right-hander A.J. Burnett pitching for the New York Yankees , entered Tuesday hitting just .179 with one homer and eight RBIs. He went 1-for-4 with a double Monday, but he was coming off a homestand in which he went just 2-for-14 with two walks. "It hasn't been very fun, that's for sure," Reimold said.

A 9-year-old boy was injured Saturday at the Maryland State Fair when he tried get off a small swing ride while it was operating. The incident was the most serious injury this year at the state fair, which ends Monday, said Michael Huber, coordinator of emergency services at the event in Timonium. Huber said the child's grandmother put him on the ride. "At some point, he decided he didn't want to be on it and attempted to exit the ride while it was in operation," Huber said.

During WWE's third quarter earnings conference call on Thursday, chairman Vince McMahon called WWE's recent SummerSlam pay-per-view a "swing and a miss. " The event, which is traditionally WWE's second-largest of the year, took place on Aug. 18. McMahon noted that pay-pay-views are attraction driven and that Summerslam didn't feature the right attraction. The advertised co-main events at Summerslam were John Cena defending the WWE title against Daniel Bryan, and CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar.

The second season premiere of "Khloe & Lamar" starts with updates on some of the show's key characters. Both Khloe's and Lamar's besties (Malika and Jamie, respectively) will be joining us this season. And, we are reminded of Kim's “ugly cry,” courtesy of flashbacks from"Kourtney and Kim Take New York,"Season 2. Personally, I anticipated some explanation of the move to Dallas: packing, mansion-shopping, oh, and basketball too. Speaking of packing, we see Rob moving into his new apartment. Rob's move doesn't sit too well with Lamar.

On Friday Ken Weinman, who had been co-hosting from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily at 105.7 The Fan, tweeted the following: "For all those who are wondering today was my last day at The Fan. Please continue to follow as I will still have opinions and you will hear me again soon. " Sooner than you think -- and on the very station that he said he had spent his last day at. Dave Labrozzi, head of programming for 105.7 The Fan, said Tuesday morning that Weinman will continue at the station on a "part-time" basis in a "fill-in role.

Inviting a friend to play on a tire swing can be difficult for autistic children, but with special kinds of playgrounds cropping up in Maryland and around the country, it may become easier. The Shafer Center, a school in Owings Mills for autistic children ages 2 to 8, recently installed a playground intended to help children with social interaction and motor skills. Specialized equipment can "foster social interaction" between autistic children, who sometimes have a more difficult time interacting socially and using social cues, experts say. "A lot of pieces on the playground require more than one person," said Kristen DeBoy, an applied behavioral analysis therapist at the Shafer Center.

To get your Fourth of July off to a swinging step, I just had to share what must be the coolest version of John Philip Sousa's famous march "Stars and Stripes Forever. " Recorded in 1939, this brilliantly swinging blast from the past is by the big band of Baltimore's own Chick Webb, one of the greatest talents in jazz history. Crank up the volume and set your patriotic toes tappin'.

Struggling first baseman Chris Davis was out of the starting lineup Monday for the second time in eight games, dealing with a sagging batting average and lingering oblique soreness through which he has been playing. Before the game, he said he wasn't excited about losing at-bats, even if it was against one of the American League's toughest left-handed pitchers in the Chicago White Sox's Chris Sale. But Davis said he accepted the decision because he understood that maybe he wasn't one of the Orioles' best nine hitters right now. Well, apparently being the club's 10th best hitter was plenty good enough.

"Hey, it felt like a real city there for a minute," commented a waiter from Tapas Teatro, one block up North Charles Street from Penn Station. "All right, we have a touch of New Orleans," said an enthusiastic MTA employee coming out of the William Donald Schaefer office tower, downtown at St. Paul and Baltimore Streets. They were reacting to the jazz music by Swing N' Samba - Michael Spittel on guitar and me on saxophone. Live music played outdoors gives city streets a certain kind of energy, a vitality that people respond to. Creating that vitality was the goal in 2005, when then-Baltimore City Councilwoman Catherine Pugh proposed a licensing system for street entertainers in the hopes it would encourage the kind of performances she saw in her native Philadelphia.

We are now 24 hours removed from the unbelievable final minutes of the Ravens' 29-26 win over the Minnesota Vikings, and I still can't believe what I watched at M&T Bank Stadium. I'm sure I'm not alone. There were six lead changes in the fourth quarter of Sunday's game, which was the most in NFL history, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The Ravens and Vikings combined to score five touchdowns for 36 points in the final 125 seconds of the game, which were by far the most combined points scored by two teams in the final two and a half minutes of the fourth quarter in any game over the past 50 seasons.

During WWE's third quarter earnings conference call on Thursday, chairman Vince McMahon called WWE's recent SummerSlam pay-per-view a "swing and a miss. " The event, which is traditionally WWE's second-largest of the year, took place on Aug. 18. McMahon noted that pay-pay-views are attraction driven and that Summerslam didn't feature the right attraction. The advertised co-main events at Summerslam were John Cena defending the WWE title against Daniel Bryan, and CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar.

Friday will mark the three-week point since Nick Markakis had June 1 surgery to remove part of his hamate bone in his right wrist. The Orioles right fielder was hoping to be able to swing a bat on Friday, then go on a brief rehab stint and rejoin the big-league club during the upcoming homestand. That's too optimistic, according to manager Buck Showalter, who said Markakis will be re-examined Friday in Baltimore, but almost certainly won't swing a bat. When asked if Markakis could be activated by the end of this upcoming homestand, which begins Friday and ends July 1, Showalter said, “I don't see that happening, but we'll see.” “The doctors, [Friday]

A burst of heat and humidity prompted early school closings and electricity-saving measures across the region Wednesday, but a snap back to fall-like weather lies ahead Friday and through the weekend. Temperatures surged to highs of 95 degrees at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and 98 degrees at the Maryland Science Center in the afternoon. High humidity made it feel as hot as 105 degrees downtown as high pressure over the eastern United States pumped warm, moist air up from the Gulf of Mexico.

If you think that numbers don't lie, you might want to look at the stat sheet and try to figure out how the Orioles lineup can be so good on paper and look so bad in clutch situations. It's right there in black and white. The Orioles entered Tuesday night's game against the Tampa Bay Rays ranked third in the major leagues in both batting average and slugging percentage with runners in scoring position, but lately they've been on top of the world in frustrating their fans by making the least of promising scoring opportunities.